SEOUL—South Korea’s Defense Ministry halted propaganda broadcasts across its heavily guarded border with North Korea, a move it said was a show of good faith to Pyongyang ahead of an inter-Korean summit later this week.

A Defense Ministry spokesman said Monday that broadcasts were halted at midnight local time. The broadcasts, which blare across the border via high-wattage loudspeakers, include the latest South Korean pop songs, information on South Korea’s higher living standards and criticism of North Korean dictator
Kim Jong Un.

“We hope this decision will contribute towards ending mutual criticism and propaganda activities, and result in creating a mood of peace,” a ministry statement said. North Korea didn’t immediately react to the move.

The two Koreas also set up a new direct phone line last week between Mr. Kim and South Korean President
Moon Jae-in
—a first, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

It is believed that the propaganda broadcasts are able to be heard up to 10 to 15 miles inside North Korea, meaning that front-line troops and villagers living near the inter-Korean border would be within range.

A handful of the 30,000 North Korean defectors now living in the South have said they were exposed to life in South Korea by the broadcasts.

Officials in Pyongyang regard the broadcasts as undermining the North Korean government’s information blockade, according to accounts from defectors, and have called them a threat to national security.

South Korea has broadcast propaganda for decades, but the speakers have been switched on and off multiple times in recent years as tensions have risen and fallen.

North Korea retaliated with artillery fire. High-level talks days later between the two Koreas resulted in Pyongyang signing a statement of regret regarding the mine incident. Seoul agreed to halt the broadcasts. But Seoul resumed them just months later after North Korea conducted a nuclear weapons test in January 2016.